Hoffenheim's 6-0 thrashing of Casjena not only caught the attention of the local media, but the state of Baden-Württemberg and the whole of Germany were shocked by Hoffenheim's attacking power. In the first round, Kasyana beat Hoffenheim 3-1, and after the winter break, Hoffenheim beat them 6-0. In this game, Hoffenheim did not complete the run-in, but the individual ability of their players made up for the lack of cooperation, Casyana's left side was blown up by Li Huan, and the middle was eaten by Eduardo, which led to the final defeat. The Hoffenheim side in the first half of the season had won 13 in a row, but they had little potential to tap into it. The late streak was mostly a reflection of the luck of the strong players, but the potential shown by Hoffenheim in this game was feared by all the Bundesliga teams, and anyone can imagine how powerful this Hoffenheim team will be after a successful run-in.

In Bild's selection of the best team in the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim had four players on the list, created a free kick, scored a goal, and had many wonderful performances; Li Huan, who opened the scoring for the team and had an assist, Demba Ba, who scored two goals in 15 minutes on the field, and Yaisler, who played in place of captain Matthia and played well, among the four people, Li Huan was the only player in the main lineup in the first half. "Bild" believes that Hoffenheim's winter reinforcements basically meet the requirements of head coach Rangnick, so that the team's original position has become stronger, although the run-in is not tacit, but there is no problem in dealing with the Bundesliga opponents whose strength is obviously a notch lower than them. Only Ibisevic made an unexpected start, but his performance was terrible, and the facts proved that his value was in line with his performance.

"Kicker" gave almost all the newcomers a high score this time, even the substitute Obasi also scored 2 points, and only Ibisevic scored a measly 4 points, the lowest score of all the players in Hoffenheim. The Kicker believes that Ibisevic lacks confidence and is slow to react to goal, and that he should not have started at all, and perhaps coming off the bench will give him a normal heart.

In the second league game after the winter break, Rangnick unexpectedly let Ibisevic start again, this time Hoffenheim played against the team's vice-president Essen team, in fact, this is not Rangnick deliberately working against the media, nor is Rangnick worried about hurting Ibisevic's self-confidence, but in the training match Ibisevic's state is really good, and he also scored a hat trick, the player's performance makes the state-only Rangnick have to give him a chance.

But Ibisevic disappointed everyone again, Hoffenheim beat Essen 3-0 away, Sarihovic, Demba Ba and captain Tebel scored, Li Huan assisted two of them, but Ibisevic was still sleepwalking on the field, he did not score or attack, the good form on the training field disappeared as soon as it came to the official game, only to be replaced by Demba Ba soon after the start of the second half. To the surprise of the Hoffenheim coaching staff, psychiatrist Herman said it was a psychological problem and that it would be better if he could get used to it slowly, or let Ibisevic come off the bench to relieve the pressure a little.

The win over Essen was Hoffenheim's 13th winning streak of the season, and they were followed by two of the season's strongest opponents, Rostock and Karlsruhe, who are now just behind Hoffenheim in second and third places. These two games are also considered by the media and fans to be the two games that will determine the qualification places and the championship of the Bundesliga this season, if Rostock and Karlsruhe can beat Hoffenheim, then this year's promotion situation will definitely become very complicated, and if Hoffenheim beat Rostock and Karlsruhe, they will definitely lead the Bundesliga standings, promotion is almost a certainty, this year's Hoffenheim and last season's Karlsruhe are very similar, after the halfway is in great form, high in the top of the standings. But the difference between Hoffenheim and Karlsruhe is that Hoffenheim will not have an economic crisis, Hoffenheim also spent more than 20 million to buy many strong players during the winter break, even if Li Huan is injured, they will not collapse like Karlsruhe.

If Hoffenheim win these two games, they will also be able to equal Bayern Munich's record of 15 consecutive wins. Although Hoffenheim's players say that they don't care about any winning streak, after all, setting a record is exciting, and Hoffenheim's players can't be completely unconcerned as they say. And once they defeat these two strong opponents, the next day behind them will be very good, the strength of the opponents behind them is very average, and it is very likely that they will continue to win streak and create a myth.

Rostock swept away last season's decline this season, and their performance in the league was eye-catching, their style of play is different from Hoffenheim and Karlsruhe, Hoffenheim is an attacking football, advocating the initiative to find the opponent's flaws, Karlsruhe pays attention to an offensive and defensive balance, both defense and attack are very important, even the striker players will actively return to the defense. However, Rostock prefers to defend and then wait for the opponent to leak and then attack decisively, and they have won all the games in which they scored first this season, which fully shows how strong their defensive ability is, so this match between Rostock and Hoffenheim is also known as a game between spear and shield.

The last meeting between the two teams was at the Baltic Stadium in Rostock, where Rostock defended Hoffenheim, desperate for a win, before beating Hoffenheim 2-0 with two goals from leading scorer Cohen on his sharp counter-attack. The game shifted from the Baltic Sea to the small mountain village of Hoffenheim, and the situation and strength of the two sides have changed completely differently, Rostock is now facing a team that spent 20 million euros on the winter break, while Rostock spent only 500,000 euros on the winter break. But Rostock's head coach Pagelsdorf doesn't seem to care too much about the current imbalance in power, and his words are full of courage: "We didn't just come to Hoffenheim to greet the high-priced players they bought, and we didn't just want to take pictures with them. We'll definitely give it our all. ”

Hoffenheim also took such a game worth six points very seriously, and Rangnick once again cooled down the players before the game to avoid them getting hot-headed, and Rostock is clearly not an easy team to play against. "We are very confident of winning the Bundesliga this season, we are the best team in the Bundesliga. But the team in front of us obviously doesn't want us to do what we want, we know Rostock as well, they worked very hard during the winter break and we improved our squad, but they also improved and we had to fight in the first minute because otherwise the result is not good. The players relaxed a bit in the second half of the midweek league game, and the same problem must not have been in this game. Otherwise we're going to suffer, and don't forget that the opponents beat us at home and there's no one who says they won't get a second win. ”

Captain Teber seriously agreed with manager Rangnick's idea, saying: "If we still play like we did in the second half against Essen, then the team has to be woken up in an unpleasant way, we have to recognise the situation, we haven't qualified yet, I hope my team-mates don't think about any streak in their minds now, let alone revenge, what we need is to win and keep winning games." ”

Demba Ba, who has been getting more and more playing time and has scored three goals in two games, said: "The team is in good shape at the moment, I'm in good shape, three goals make me happy with myself, I'm sure I'll get a starting position in this game, it's incredible to have a striker who has scored three goals in two games on the bench, but we need to be careful in this game, otherwise once the opponent scores first, the rest of the game will be very tough." I don't like to play painful games. But I'm sure I'll score sooner than Cohen. “

The influence of the Rheinneckar has not yet reached the Baltic region of East Germany, and no one there will be able to buy the Rheinneckar, and in the absence of mainstream media attention, most of the war of words between the two sides is online, and as soon as the news on the official websites of Hoffenheim and Rostock is released, the fans and players here will react and then carry out counterattacks, so the war of words with the participation of fans is also interesting.

Regarding the statement of the Hoffenheim players, Rostock's general Cohen also talked about his own thoughts, he said: "Our current strength is definitely not comparable with Hoffenheim, although they are many times smaller than us, but he has a rich boss, they spent more than 20 million during the winter break, this is a terrible number, if you count Li Huan, who did not play in the first round, their lineup is more than 30 million euros higher than the first leg, which is very scary, because this number is 60 times that of our winter investment, So we have to go all out and try to win, we defended well, but now we have a team with a lot of attacking power, they have won 13 games in a row, they have scored nine goals in the last two games, especially their defender Li Huan, his free kick is too good, we can't foul in the edge of the box, otherwise it will be dangerous for us. Although Wasit's goalkeeping skills are good, I don't want him to be singled out by such a terrifying opponent. I'm sure the coach has a good set-up. ”

Then there is the confrontation between the fans of the two sides, the fans of Rostock are located in the East Germany, and they have always been unkind to the teams in the west and south, not to mention Hoffenheim, who is hundreds of times richer than them, and the fans of Rostock attacked Hoffenheim on the forum for climbing out of the amateur league by burning money, and swore that their team would definitely beat Hoffenheim away, so that they understood that money is not everything, and money does not necessarily buy victory.

Hoffenheim's fans are a voice of revenge, their whole village went to the Internet to start a war of words with the opponent's fans, they defended their team, proving that Hoffenheim did not burn money on big-name players, even Li Huan and Eduardo, the two players with the highest transfer fees, are not as valuable as a substitute for Bayern Munich, and Hoffenheim buy young players, they mainly develop rather than buy a strong team.

The pre-match war of words continued until the start of the game, and both teams behaved as cautiously as they said before the game.

For such a three-point game, the coach can't be too risky, Rangnick's starting lineup and the first two games have made two adjustments, Demba Ba finally got his wish to replace Ibisevic's position as a starter, and another winter transfer of the young player Weiss also got the opportunity to start, the player he replaced was Hoffenheim's captain Terber, and the midfielder Celal built a defensive line, although this lineup is a little conservative, but because Li Huan and Eduardo's attack is very strong, And Demba Ba's confrontation and attack power are also very prominent, and it is still necessary to adjust the thickness of the midfield, because in the first round Rangnick has had enough of Pagelsdorf's suffering, this time he does not want to suffer again, he believes that Eduardo and Li Huan two sharp blades with Demba Ba's sledgehammer should be able to knock on the door of Rostock.

After the start of the game, Hoffenheim, as usual, carried out a wide range of pressing from the beginning, and Rostock's defense was really not bad, they defended well and did not defend intensively, they began to intercept in the midfield, most of these players have stayed since the relegation in 2005, the players are very good in helping to defend, and the cooperation is also tacit, and the individual ability is also outstanding, the reason why this season can achieve such success, and their original Bundesliga defensive team is inseparable.

The two sides fought very fiercely in the midfield, so that yellow cards appeared frequently, and technical players such as Eduardo and Sarihovic were knocked on their backs in the midfield, losing the rhythm of the first two games, but it was Weiss and Demba Ba, who started for the first time, showed great power, and they caused a lot of problems for Rostock at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.

(To be continued)